VirtualBox
VirtualBox 4.2.6 start window
Vendor: Oracle
License: GPL, PUEL
Web: virtualbox.org
About
VirtualBox is a virtualization product originally made by innotek, and now owned by Oracle. Current versions of VirtualBox can be used on 64-bit Intel and AMD CPUs. Version 6.0.14 of VirtualBox is the last version that builds on a 32-bit host. The base package was released as free and open source software (GPLv2) in January of 2007. An add-on package which contains some features missing from the open-source version, such as USB 2.0/3.0 support, is licensed under a proprietary use that allows free use for personal and educational users. As this license does not meet the openSUSE requirements, we do not build and distribute this software. The necessary ...extpack file for the current version can be downloaded from https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html, and installed using the GUI under the Tools/Extensions tabs.
VirtualBox comes with openSUSE and should work out-of-the-box. Since openSUSE 11.4, USB devices attached to the host can be used in guest operating systems if the resulting security risk is acceptable. See below for more details.
Installing the latest Version of the Guest Additions
Modern versions of VirtualBox (7.0..X and later) will not need to run the guest additions for Linux guests as the drivers contained in that ISO from Oracle are already part of the standard kernel. For non-Linux guests, you will likely need to install this software. If you have downloaded the version of VirtualBoxGuestAddition...iso that is appropriate for your host's version of VirtualBox, then use the Devices tab to attach the file to the virtual optical drive, otherwise, select the Upgrade Guest Additions option under the Devices tab, which will download and mount the virtual CD. Your guest machine may start the installation automatically, otherwise use a file browser to find the installation file appropriate for your guest, and start it. On Linux, that step will need to be done as root.
By default only the root user will be able to access Shared Folders mounted from the host system (usually these appear under /media). To allow ordinary users access to these folders:
- Open the User and Group Management module in YaST and add each user you want to grant permission to the vboxsf group
- Have the affected users logout and log back in, they should now be able to access Shared Folders.
- You might have a permission error when opening the directory /media. A quick fix is to change the permission of that directory.
- chmod o+rx /media
That should suffice and the sf_SHARENAME directory under /media should be accessible now.
Note: A lot of forum posts and guides on the Web advise you to fiddle around with /etc/fstab settings or manually mount Shared Folders using scripts. This simpler method removes the need for hacks like that.
USB passthrough (rpm package from the distro)
Note that this is a security risk, see the bug 664520.
Because of the security risk, openSUSE's version maintains files ~/.config/VirtualBox/enable and ~/.config/VirtualBox/disable. If neither of these files exist when the VirtualBox GUI is started, a separate program asking the user's preference will be run. According to the preferences, either ../enable or ../disable will be created. Only if ../enable is created will USB passthrough be enabled.
If you downloaded and installed the package from virtualbox.org, there will not be any protection against USB operations.
Troubleshooting
Rebuild host kernel module
Problem
After a kernel update, it is possible that VirtualBox throw an error before starting virtual machines:
Solution
su zypper install virtualbox-host-source kernel-devel kernel-default-devel systemctl stop vboxdrv vboxconfig
After that you need to reboot system.
Tested on openSUSE Tumbleweed 20221016